A hobbyist modeller has devoted 65 years to building a fleet of 463 warships -
made from more than a million matchsticks.

Philip Warren, 82, has dedicated his entire adult life to crafting the matchstick armada and has built every class of ship in the Royal Navy since 1945.

Each ship in his huge collection is extremely detailed and he has even built miniature model aircrafts to go with his 3ft long carrier ships.

The vessels are all painstakingly hand made using just a ruler, razor blade and glue, and can take up to a year to complete.

Warren began his hobby when he was aged 17 in 1948 after looking at pictures of naval boats.

He began gathering matchsticks as they were easy to get hold of and taught himself his own technique to assemble them into intricate sculptures on a scale model of 1:300.

Since then he has constructed around 250 Royal Navy ships including HMS Ark Royal, HMS Belfast and HMS Sheffield, 60 American vessels and 50 from other nations.

The ships range in size from just a matter of inches to 3ft 4ins.

Warren, a retired director of a stationery wholesale company from Blandford, Dorset, is now exhibiting 217 of his ships at the Nothe Fort Museum in Weymouth.

The father-of-one was married to wife Anita for 47 years until she died 11 years ago. He said: "It all started when I was about 17 and I wanted to make models like every other boy did and I was fascinated with war ships.

"Matches were common then, they were used by everyone and came in wooden boxes so I decided I would use them. There were no kits back then - you used what was to hand.

"I taught myself all the way. I did get hints and tips from other model makers but the whole technique I developed on my own.

Warren started by looking at pictures in magazines and making detailed plans, and today also uses the internet for research.

He began making ships from the end of the Second World War in 1945 and has not stopped since.

He said: "Although I have always enjoyed the hobby I had no idea I would eventually build 463 ships and still be doing it 65 years later.

"The majority of the ships are Royal Navy but I have made around 60 American carrier ships as some of them are pretty awesome.

"They are about 40 inches long and I have built them to carry 60 aircraft, but in reality they could carry up to 100.

(RachelAdams/BNPS)

The ships can take up to a year to build. He said: "My favourite is one of the big carriers, USS John F Kennedy, and the most recent ship I built was HMS Edinburgh.

"I build them in a spare room where I can work for just two minutes on something or for five hours, but I probably spend up to a year on a carrier.

"One of the recent ones I built had approximately 5,000 matches and 200 match boxes in it so I think I have probably used well over a million since I began.

"I have given about 50 or 60 models away to my naval friends and destroyed around 40 of them that weren't up to scratch.